Thursday, June 04, 2009

Got a presser today calling out the Ohio Jobs and Growth Committee (i.e. the hundred somethingth attempt to legalize casino gambling in Ohio) Folks working against the issue (yes, including some adjacent-state casino interests) caught some petition circulators erm bluffing a little with the facts. And caught it on video and posted it.

The Mahoning County Dem Party has filed for a temporary restraining order to stop the Committee from circulating petitions.

The video gives a good picture of how this sort of thing happens -- including the celebrated case of ACORN. The guys in the video don't look like they've read the same briefing book about which lies to say. They look like guys who are paid by the signature and say anything to get voters to sign on the line that is dotted.

As someone opposed to legalized casino gambling I enjoy seeing a little mud splashed on those who insist on inflicting this issue on us every election cycle. As someone interested in how campaigns use online tools, this is an interesting case study (about 500 views so far. Meh.)

But mostly it's the lawyer in me that will be watching this with fascination. While the evidence doesn't support a vast conspiracy to lie to potential signatories, it does point to bad training and bad quality control. So what will the judge do about that? I've been told that the judge will decide the case shortly. Wait and see.

UPDATES. The judge in the case issued a temporary restraining order on June 5. The pro-casino group moved the court to vacate the order and dismiss the action on June 9.

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comments:

That said, this problem was endemic w/ Learn and Earn in '06. I guess the big difference might be that Learn and Earn paid petitioners hourly - reducing the perceived necessity to forge signatures. The only real reason to forge was thus to keep a job w/o actually working... which we did see.

Much more often than not we would catch these people and see that their employment was no longer required and also dispose of those petitions appropriately.

Despite all of my misgivings of having been associated w/ Learn and Earn, Fieldworks itself was a good and clean company to work for. Those of us in the Akron office strove to drive home the themes that we were told to spout to the unwitting and we made sure that all of our petitioners knew the same.

Pho, do you know who is purporting to be running the ground operation in this instance?

As you note some outfits do a better job with quality control than others and different pay schemes generate different incentives. I don't know who the Ohio Legalize Casinos and All Will Be Paradise Committee has employed. The TRO complaint didn't identify them except as John/Jane Does. As the case goes forward, I'm sure they will be identified.